I understand what you are saying, but you are misguided. I work with college athletes on a daily basis. The players who redshirt are often required to go to a lot of the meetings, they don't always travel with the team, they go to team practices but often don't have the same level of individual attention that active players do, there are many events that they are not required to go to. Plus, the pressure is different and that makes a world of difference.
As a caveat, I will say there is less of a benefit for basketball players. Because the team is smaller, they are usually required to do all the things non-redshirts do. What I described is more common in sports like football, baseball, and the Olympic sports.
Exactly. That is also the same experience I had in my 7 years in intercollegiate athletic departments. Not nearly the same level of mandatory stuff, but the key is the pressure part. When you know you aren't going to play, it's completely different. I'd compare it to attending a meeting where you are giving an hour long presentation and leading the meeting vs just being a guy at the meeting. A totally different level of stress, pressure, etc, yet both are in the same meeting, or on the same team.
